Day: July 9, 2017

UNESCO Adds to List of World Heritage Sites

A remote Iranian desert city, Ice Age-era caves in Germany and a stone wharf in Brazil built for arriving African slave ships are three new additions to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites.

The World Heritage Committee spent a week meeting in Kraków, Poland, to consider 34 significant historical and cultural sites to add to the list.

This year’s selections include the Iranian city of Yazd, which UNESCO describes as a “living testimony to the use of limited resources for survival in the desert.”

The city has managed to avoid so-called modernization that destroyed many similar Iranian towns, and has preserved its traditional homes, bazaars, mosques and synagogues.

Another site UNESCO added to the list is in the Swabian Jura in southern Germany, one of the areas in Europe where humans first arrived more than 40,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age. They settled in caves, first discovered in the 1860s, and where they created some of the oldest known figurative art.

The U.N. cultural organization said the ancient musical instruments and prehistoric carved figures of animals and humans found in the caves help shed light on the origins of human artistic development

UNESCO also placed the Valongo Wharf in central Rio de Janeiro on the World Heritage List. The stone wharves were built in the early 1800s for slave ships sailing from Africa to Brazil. UNESCO called the wharves “the most important physical trace of the arrival of African slaves on the American continent.”

UNESCO added the World Heritage designation to more than 22 sites during its weeklong meeting in Poland, including choices that were controversial.

They include the Hoh Xil area in the China’s Qinghai province, a traditionally Tibetan area. By designating this a World Heritage site, the International Camnpaign for Tibet, an advocacy group critical of China’s administration there, said UNESCO endorses the forced relocation of Tibetan nomads by Chinese authorities.

China has promised to preserve the traditions and cultural heritage of the Tibetan region.

UNESCO also designated the Old City and Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron as a Palestinian World Heritage Site, angering Israel.

The city is split between Israeli and Palestinian control with the Old City and tomb in the Israeli sector. The tomb is sacred to Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Israel accuses UNESCO of trying to hide Jewish ties to Hebron, while Palestinians contend Israel is seeking to undermine their history.

 

 

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IOC Balks at Helping Rio With $35-40 Million Olympic Debt

The IOC has balked at helping Rio Olympic organizers pay a debt estimated at $35-40 million.

 

The executive board of the International Olympic Committee, meeting Sunday in Lausanne, Switzerland, said it had already contributed a “record” $1.53 billion to last year’s Olympics, and questioned giving more after meeting with organizing committee President Carlos Nuzman.

 

In a statement, the IOC said “more detailed information” was needed and said it “deferred any further consideration at this stage.” It added that it “has closed all its obligations with the organizing committee.”

 

Contractually, host cities and countries are obligated to pay Olympic debts.

 

In Rio’s case, if governments step in to help pay creditors, it is sure to anger police, teachers, and other public employees who are getting paid late – caught up in Brazil’s deepest recession in decades.

 

The IOC, trying to move on to future games including the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in seven months, said in addition to record help for Rio, there had been “an exceptional effort to significant cost savings and additional financial undertakings by all the Olympic stakeholders, which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars.”

 

The Rio Olympics opened just under a year ago and were plagued by organizational problems, spotty attendance, corruption scandals, and Brazil’s worst recession in decades. At the last minute, organizers needed millions in a government bailout to hold the Paralympic Games.

 

Some infrastructure built for the Olympics has found uses – a subway line, a renovated port, and high-speed bus lines. But sporting venues are mostly vacant, a $20 million Olympic golf course is struggling to find players, and fewer than 10 percent of the apartments in the 3,600-unit Athletes Village are reported to have found buyers.

 

Last month, an AP analysis – supported by city, state and federal data – put the cost of the Olympics at $13.1 billion, a mix of public and private money. However, the exact figure is likely larger and may never be known.

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From Paintings to Flash Protests, Venezuelan Artists Raise Voices

Deploying poems, paintings and posters, opposition-minded artists in Venezuela are expanding their anti-government protests, offering a peaceful alternative to the violent political unrest costing at least 90 lives in three months.

“We don’t want to confront passers-by but to encourage reflection,” said Teresa Mulet, 46, a designer who joined a recent flash protest in a Caracas boulevard, lying with two dozen people as if dead before jumping up to deliver their message.

At the event, lasting just minutes, some shouted phrases lauding peaceful resistance, while others held letters of the alphabet drawn on cardboard which, when joined, spelled a line from a Venezuelan poem: “Those who kill in reality have not lived.”

Such surprise demonstrations are organized by a group of intellectuals and artistic creators – from historians to film directors – meeting discreetly since May, sometimes in bookshops, to design different strategies of protests to the traditional street marches.

The organizers break into small groups and appear suddenly at opposition marches or public spaces, including some areas dominated by government supporters, to leave messages that later go viral on social networks.

Near-daily opposition rallies have brought chaos to Venezuelan streets since April as protesters demand elections, solutions to an economic crisis and a suspension of leftist President Nicolas Maduro’s plan to rewrite the constitution.

Many have descended into battles between masked youths and security forces, with thousands of injuries and arrests on top of the fatalities. Maduro says the protesters are seeking a violent coup with U.S. encouragement.

Seeking to create arresting images, artists have sometimes turned to gargantuan projects.

In the Venezuelan capital Caracas’ largest slum, Petare, they recently unfurled a 25-meter- (82-foot-) wide poster made from 3,000 two bolivar currency notes – worth less than $1 at the street rate – to denounce roaring inflation and economic hardship.

Sometimes, peaceful protesters have been holding up signs, like “Ceasefire!” or “No To Violence!,” just meters (yards) from where young men hurl stones and Molotov cocktails against National Guard soldiers using tear gas and water cannons.

At times, the security forces have fired tear gas canisters directly at the peaceful art-themed protest gatherings.

In Barinas, the rural home state of Maduro’s predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez, one painter depicted a pregnant mother with a baby inside her wearing a gas mask – in honor of Venezuela’s new generation of young protesters.

Oscar Olivares, a painter and friend of slain student protester Juan Pernalete, mixes the faces of victims with religious images in his protest-themed designs.

“All of us, with our gifts and talents, can build a better Venezuela,” said Olivares, some of whose images have been featured on the makeshift shields of young demonstrators. “I’m happy to know my art can provide hope and protection.”

The artists, some of whom draw inspiration from Spain’s anti-austerity protesters known as “Indignados” (“The Indignant Ones”), are convinced their methods will be more successful than violent protests.

“We’re trying to reflect what common people feel,” said Mariela Ramirez, 52, an architect.

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At France’s Davos, French Bosses Laud Impact of New President

Top French company bosses who have for years lamented their country’s slow pace of reforms at an annual summer gathering in Provence offered glowing praise this year for the first steps taken by newly elected President Emmanuel Macron.

Sixty days after Macron became France’s youngest ever president, the CEOs gathered in the southern town of Aix-en-Provence said they had sensed a radical change in the country’s image abroad.

“The whole world admires France today. There is renewed confidence, optimism about the country,” Patrick Pouyanne, the head of oil major Total, France’s largest company, told reporters.

“What I expect from this government is that it maintains this confidence, this optimism so the French start spending more and companies start investing.”

Although Macron’s government has yet to pass any concrete measures, it outlined its action plan in policy speeches last week, and has begun talks with unions to pass an extensive reform of French labor regulations.

“I think this new president and his government are making an extremely positive start,” Isabelle Kocher of gas utility ENGIE told Reuters at the summit often referred to as a “mini-Davos”.

“They are changing France’s image abroad, I see it everywhere I go, it’s really striking and has happened very quickly,” she said.

“France went from being labeled the sick man of Europe to being seen as the savior of Europe,” a politician who sits on the board of several French companies told Reuters at one of the cafes lining the town’s sunny streets.

Tax cut debates

Even the government’s announcement earlier this week that some tax cuts would be delayed — including exemptions to a wealth tax and the introduction of a flat tax on capital income of 30 percent — did not draw much criticism.

“There are some debates about the government’s tax measures, if they’ll be done now or if it’ll wait because it has no money,” UBS’s head of French operations Jean-Frederic de Leusse told Reuters.

On Sunday, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire seemed to suggest the delays were still the subject of discussions in government.

But when pressed, French CEOs who had in previous gatherings complained loudly about a tax burden which was the EU’s heaviest last year, refused to blame the government.

“Let’s not start criticizing,” Total’s Pouyanne said. “Let’s give them a bit of time. If there were a magic potion, it would have been used a long time ago.”

The CEO of the country’s flagship airline, Air France-KLM, concurred.

“Like all decision-makers, the government has to deal with contradicting demands. Respecting a certain number of European rules, so that our partners can take us more seriously, is important,” Jean-Marc Janaillac told Reuters.

“If the price we have to pay is a slightly delayed timeframe, that doesn’t seem to be a major inconvenience for me compared to its advantages,” he added.

France’s top central bankers agreed the government was right to prioritize deficit reduction over tax cuts so that France can, for the first time in a decade, bring its deficit below the European Union’s 3 percent of GDP ceiling.

ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said France’s respect for the rules would help discussions the government hopes to launch about common budget measures in the euro zone.

“We’re all for tax cuts, but let’s not equate reform with immediate, unfunded tax cuts,” Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau told the conference on Sunday.

“We’ve already paid a heavy price for this kind of liability on the future.”

 

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China Tests Self-sustaining Space Station in Beijing

Sealed behind the steel doors of two bunkers in a Beijing suburb, university students are trying to find out how it feels to live in a space station on another planet, recycling everything from plant cuttings to urine.

They are part of a project aimed at creating a self-sustaining ecosystem that provides everything humans need to survive.

Four students from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics entered the Lunar Palace-1 on Sunday with the aim of living self-sufficiently for 200 days.

They say they are happy to act as human guinea-pigs if it means getting closer to their dream of becoming astronauts.

“I’ll get so much out of this,” Liu Guanghui, a PhD student, who entered the bunker on Sunday, said. “It’s truly a different life experience.”

President Xi Jinping wants China to become a global power in space exploration, with plans to send the first probe to the dark side of the moon by 2018 and to put astronauts on the moon by 2036. The Lunar Palace 365 experiment may allow them to stay there for extended periods.

For Liu Hong, a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the project’s principal architect, said everything needed for human survival had been carefully calculated.

“We’ve designed it so the oxygen [produced by plants at the station] is exactly enough to satisfy the humans, the animals, and the organisms that break down the waste materials,” she said.

But satisfying physical needs is only one part of the experiment, Liu said. Charting the mental impact of confinement in a small space for such a long time is equally crucial.

“They can become a bit depressed,” Liu said. “If you spend a long time in this type of environment it can create some psychological problems.”

Liu Hui, a student leader who participated an initial 60-day experiment at Lunar Palace-1 that finished on Sunday, said that she sometimes “felt a bit low” after a day’s work.

The project’s support team has found mapping out a specific set of daily tasks for the students is one way that helps them to remain happy.

But the 200-day group will also be tested to see how they react to living a for period of time without sunlight. The project’s team declined to elaborate.

“We did this experiment with animals… so we want to see how much impact it will have on people,” Liu, the professor, said.

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IOC Planning Refugee Team at 2020 Tokyo Games

Refugees are likely to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with the International Olympic Committee planning another refugee team after its first appearance at last year’s Rio de Janeiro Games.

The IOC unveiled its first team of refugees last year in an effort to raise awareness of the issue and it was one of the feel-good stories of the 2016 Olympics.

The 10-member team from Syria, Congo, Ethiopia and South Sudan hogged the spotlight after marching as the penultimate team before host nation Brazil in the Opening Ceremony at the Olympic stadium.

The athletes took part in athletics, swimming and judo.

“We are already discussing a potential refugee team for Tokyo 2020,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters on Sunday.

“We want to strengthen our efforts with the United Nations.”

Adams said it was too early to talk about size of the team given the complex selection process, with the refugees for Rio being located at camps scattered across the world.

More than a million refugees streamed into Europe in 2016 alone as they fled fighting in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Millions more are housed in camps in countries across the world, having escaped wars or armed conflicts in their home nations.

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In Houston, Former Refugees are Transformed Through Their Art

With the delicacy of a conductor, Ammar Alobaidi runs his right index finger across his acrylic work — a bright, abstract piece that reflects his love for cubism and three sources of inspiration: Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian and Salvador Dalí.

“The paintings and the colors look like music,” he said. “It has tones.”

His bachelor pad, a modern apartment overlooking a turquoise pool, near the upscale Galleria complex in Houston, Texas, doubles as his art studio and personal gallery. The space is sparse but immaculate. Original canvases occupy every wall.

Alobaidi, 48, feels completely at home here, calling Houston his “mother city,” even though he is originally from Baghdad, Iraq.

“I’m a local artist, not a refugee anymore,” he said. “This feeling gives me more power to create more beautiful things.”

Watch: Ammar Alobaidi, Immigrant and Artist, Calls Houston Home Now

Formerly an established nuclear engineer, Alobaidi resettled in the United States nearly four years ago after a life divided between Iraq, Jordan and Libya. In Houston, home to the country’s largest resettled refugee community, he made a living as a case manager with YMCA International Services’ refugee cash assistance program, in part to give back to the community that afforded him “the opportunity to develop,” but also to fund his passion.

“A lot of professional artists come here as refugees or as immigrants,” said Joe Saceric, director of Community Relations at YMCA International Services. “Whereas they might have been a well-respected professional artist in their country of origin, now they’re having to start from scratch.”

‘I am limitless’

Texas withdrew from the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program in 2016, citing security concerns. But in Houston, the YMCA has continued to provide resettlement and legal support, in more than 20 languages, to clients representing roughly 92 countries, Saceric said.

YMCA International Services noticed the range of talent within its own refugee and immigrant community, including Alobaidi, and hosted an art exhibit and silent auction in 2016 — the first of its kind — called “Triumph of the Human Spirit.”

Tina Aldebashi, a 29-year-old featured immigrant artist from Yemen and outreach worker at YMCA International Services, recalled her move to Houston as a moment of self-discovery.

“The girl who came two years ago to Houston is not the same girl sitting here and talking today,” she told VOA.

“I just wanted to explore — I’ve always wanted to explore since I was a child — but I was limited to the resources I had, or the places I could go to explore,” Aldebashi said. “When I came here, I just thought, ‘I am limitless.’”

Out of darkness

Aldebashi’s medium of choice is resin, one that interprets her emotions but also “holds colors beautifully.” Apart from a “rebellious” charcoal phase, she admits her life has not been one of extreme hardship. Nonetheless, she has made it her mission to empower refugee women through the creation and sale of artwork, an idea based on her personal upbringing.

“I have seen the women in my family, and how reliant they are on their husbands,” she said. “You are an individual; you should be independent enough to do things for yourself, and not be reliant on somebody to help you.”

Alobaidi’s earlier works, like Aldebashi’s, were occasionally dark. Inside his apartment, he reveals one of fallen, dismembered corpses, reflecting the horrors of war. But his newer canvases reveal “strength of love, solidarity,” and “exchanges of generosity,” impressions that he says come as a surprise to some viewers.

“‘Oh, we thought you are a refugee,’” he said. “They thought they will see sadness … they see the opposite.”

Alobaidi, who recently left YMCA to pursue his art full time, claims to paint feelings, not figures — a truth that speaks to his positivity, as he looks ahead.

“I am sure that I will succeed, because [in] this country, when you work hard, you will succeed.” He lights up, like the paintings that surround him. “That is an equation.”

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Report: Russia Behind Hacking of US Energy, Nuclear Companies 

Hackers who penetrated the business networks of U.S. energy and nuclear companies in recent weeks were working for the Russian government according to a report in a prominent newspaper.

The Washington Post reported late Saturday that anonymous U.S. government officials confirmed the hackers were working for the Russian government.

The officials told The Post the Russians’ motive is not clear because the operations of the affected companies were not disrupted.

One U.S. official, however, said he viewed the cyberattack as “a reconnaissance effort,” to figure out points of entry into the companies. 

“That’s what all cyber bad guys do,” the official said.

The attacks on the business and administrative systems of the companies were confirmed last week when the U.S. Department of Energy said it was helping the firms defend against the intrusions.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI had alerted the energy companies in late June that unidentified hackers were targeting the nuclear, power and critical infrastructure sectors.

The agencies said that at no time was there any risk to public safety.

News of the Russian government hacking into U.S. energy and nuclear companies follows the information that Russia mounted a hacking campaign designed to interfere with the recent U.S. presidential election.

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From Pet to Pest: Red-eared Turtles Threaten Native Species

Invasive species are wreaking havoc in waters around the world — from Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades, to Asian carp in the Mississippi River, to turtles native to the US on every continent except Antarctica. Faith Lapidus reports on efforts to control the reptile in Poland.

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In India, Drug Makers Try to Stay a Step Ahead of FDA

In 28 years in India’s pharmaceuticals sector, Rajiv Desai has never been busier.

Most of the last six months on his desk calendar is marked green, indicating visits to the 12 plants of Lupin, India’s No. 2 drugmaker, where Desai is a senior quality control executive. Only one day is red — a day off.

That’s what is needed these days to satisfy the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that standards are being met.

“In this sector, you’re only as good as your last inspection,” Desai said in his office in suburban Mumbai.

Often dubbed “the pharmacy of the world,” India is home to the most FDA-approved plants outside of the United States and supplies about 40 percent of the $70 billion worth of generic drugs sold in the country.

Damaged reputation

But sanctions and bans have badly damaged India’s reputation and slowed growth in the $16 billion sector. Drug exports fell in the fiscal year ending in March 2017.

More than 40 plants have been banned by the FDA for issues ranging from data fraud to hygiene since India’s then-largest drugmaker Ranbaxy was pulled up for serious violations in 2008.

Drug companies have spent millions of dollars on training, new equipment and foreign consultants. Yet the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance of the top 20 firms says its members still need at least five more years to get manufacturing standards and data reliability up to scratch.

The case of Lupin shows why.

In the next few months, the FDA is expected to clear Lupin’s Goa plant of problems found in 2015, Desai said.

However, the agency also published a notice last week citing issues with data storage at its plant in Pithampur, central India.

If companies want to continue to sell into the world’s biggest health care market, they must keep constant vigilance.

Asked about Lupin’s case, the FDA said in a statement it did not “comment on compliance matters,” but said generally: “India’s regulatory infrastructure must keep pace to ensure that relevant quality and safety standards are met.”

Form 483

India has its own standards body, the Central Drug Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), which maintains that its quality controls are stringent enough to ensure drugs are safe.

The FDA has taken matters into its own hands and gradually expanded in India to more than a dozen full-time staff.

Inspections are frequent and increasingly unannounced. If the agency finds problems, it issues a Form 483, a notice outlining the violations, which if not resolved can lead to a warning letter and in worst case, a ban.

Violations range from hygiene, such as rat traps and dirty laboratories, to inadequate controls on systems that store data, leaving it open to tampering.

None of the violations the FDA has cited in India have explicitly said the drugs are unsafe, and when companies are banned by the FDA they can sell into other markets, including in the developing world, until the bans are lifted.

There are also no studies showing that the drugs have harmed anyone in the world. But by definition, the notices are issued when the FDA finds conditions that might harm public health.

​Don’t tell anyone

Industry watchers say Lupin, which specializes in oral contraceptives and drugs for diabetes and hypertension, is doing better than most. So far none of its infractions have extended to a ban.

On a recent visit by Reuters to its Goa plant, blue-uniformed employees could be seen working on giant machines, then making notes in hardbound registers. These are being phased out as Lupin transitions to more secure e-files.

Employees are often videotaped to ensure they follow standard operating procedure. Manufacturers have cut back to focus on quality over quantity: five years ago, Lupin was making 1 billion pills a month at one of its Goa plants. Now it makes 450 million.

Both the company and employees needed to be willing to acknowledge errors, Desai said. The first impulse in the past was often “don’t tell anyone,” he said.

“We’re humans after all, not robots. We make mistakes,” said Amol Kolatkar, a production head at the Goa site.

As recently as three years ago, training was a formality, Desai said. Now, when an error is traced to an employee, the entire team undergoes fresh training.

“I have worked at a pharma company before, but this is the first time I went through such a training,” said another Lupin quality control officer, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The quality control role is key.

“They (Lupin) have had a practice where company quality heads report directly to Nilesh Gupta (the managing director),” said Amey Chalke, an analyst at HDFC Securities. “Some other companies have also started doing that now.”

The companies also have to be willing to spend big. Lachman, PwC and Boston Consulting conduct mock audits at the Goa plant every three to six months, at a cost of up to $400 an hour.

“These days the FDA is giving us 483 on small, small things,” a third quality control officer said. “So we are always auditing.”

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Canada’s Desjardins Suspends Lending for Energy Pipelines

Canadian lender Desjardins is considering no longer funding energy pipelines, a spokesman said Saturday, citing concerns about the impact such projects may have on the environment.

Desjardins, the largest association of credit unions in North America, Friday temporarily suspended lending for such projects and may make the decision permanent, spokesman Jacques Bouchard told Reuters by telephone.

He said the lender would make a final decision in September.

Following ING

Desjardins, a backer of Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd’s high-profile expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline, has been evaluating its policy for such lending for months, Bouchard said.

If it makes the decision permanent, that would likely mean Desjardins would not help finance other major Canadian pipelines projects, including TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL and Energy East and Enbridge Inc’s Line 3.

Such a move would follow that of Dutch lender ING Groep NV, which has a long-standing policy of not funding projects directly related to oil sands, and is the latest sign that pipelines could have a harder time getting funding as banks face increasing pressure to back away.

Patrick Bonin, a campaigner with the environmental group Greenpeace, praised Desjardins for temporarily halting pipeline funding, but called on the lender to make it permanent and reconsider its C$145 million ($113 million) commitment to Trans Mountain.

Indigenous, environmental groups

Desjardins is among 24 financial institutions that agreed to lend money to a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Canada, majority owned by Kinder Morgan Inc of Houston, according to regulatory filings.

A coalition of more than 20 indigenous and environmental groups, including Greenpeace, in June called on 28 major banks to pull funding for Trans Mountain, citing the risk of pipeline spills and their potential contribution to climate change.

ING, which was targeted by the coalition, said it will not fund any of the major Canadian pipelines.

The same month, Sweden’s largest national pension fund, AP7, sold investments in six companies that it says violate the Paris climate agreement, including TransCanada, in a decision environmentalists believe is the first of its kind.

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‘Monster Stage’ Likely to Shake Up Tour Standings

After 1,400 kilometers (nearly 900 miles) in eight days of racing, the suffer-fest Tour de France now turns the pain dial up a notch or five. How does scaling half the height of Everest in one day sound?

That’s the monstrous challenge lurking Sunday for the 193 tired, sunbaked riders who have made it this far.

For the moment, when race leader Chris Froome looks over his shoulder, he sees a gaggle of challengers hot on his heels. Just 61 seconds separate him from 10th-placed Rafal Majka of Poland. More dangerous contenders are closer still to the three-time Tour champion.

Climbs defy categorization

All that will likely change on the succession of seven climbs in eastern France’s Jura mountains Sunday — three of them so tough they defy categorization on cycling’s sliding scale of climbing toughness. “A monster stage” is how Froome described it, predicting the race standings will “get blown to pieces.”

Total elevation, when all the ascents are added together: 4,600 meters (15,000 feet). That’s just shy of the height of western Europe’s highest peak, Mont Blanc, and about belly button-height on Everest.

The last “hors categorie” climb, Mont du Chat, may be named after a cat but looks on Tour maps like a lion’s fang. With an average 10 percent gradient, and even steeper than that in parts, it will push riders already exhausted by the previous six climbs to the very limit. Hearts pounding, legs burning, they will have no time to recover from its hairpin bends before plunging into more fast, twisting bends on the descent. Clear heads and quick reactions are a must: Not easy when body and brain are screaming for rest.

“That climb is savage,” Froome said. “I imagine it’s going to blow the general classification right open.”

Tired legs

Complicating matters: Saturday’s stage, also in the Jura mountains, was far from easy.

Froome’s teammates at Sky had to ride hard to make sure that riders who rode off at the front of the race, chasing the stage victory, didn’t get too far ahead and take the overall lead away from him. The question now is whether Sky will pay for the effort Sunday and run out of juice on the 181.5-kilometer (112-mile) Stage 9 from Nantua to Chambery in the Alps, arguably the most grueling of this Tour’s 21 stages.

“It was good to see them pull on the front,” said Australian Richie Porte of the rival BMC team, who is 39 seconds behind Froome overall, in fifth place. “I hope there’s some tired legs among them tomorrow.”

Grinding away from pursuers on a small mountain road more suited to goats than riders, Lilian Calmejane won Stage 8 to the Rousses ski station, for his first victory in his first Tour.

Calmejane, riding for French team Direct Energie, fought cramps after breaking away on the final climb and hung on, tongue lolling, for victory in only the second visit by the Tour to the Rousses, with its cross-country ski trails through dense forests.

It was the second win at this Tour for a French rider, after Arnaud Demare’s on Stage 4.

Froome rode in 50 seconds after Calmejane — plenty close enough to retain the yellow jersey — in a group with all of the other top contenders for overall victory in Paris on July 23.

Saturday frights

Froome’s day wasn’t without incident: On a downhill, right-hand bend after the second of three rated climbs on the 187.5 kilometer (116-mile) stage from Dole, the Briton went into roadside gravel instead of cornering. Froome stayed on his bike and quickly recovered. But teammate Geraint Thomas went over roadside barriers. Thomas quickly rejoined the race, and Froome said his teammate was uninjured.

The corner “sprang up on us a little bit,” Froome said. “One moment you’re in control, the next thing you’re in a ditch.”

Calmejane held off Dutch rider Robert Gesink, hot on his heels, on the final climb and rolling finish. Cramping from his effort, Calmejane had to slow and rise off his saddle to stretch his legs in the final section and then gritted his teeth and pedaled onward to the line.

“I gave myself a huge fright,” Calmejane said of his cramps. “It would have been so sad to lose the stage like that.”

Gesink, of the Netherlands’ Lotto-Jumbo team, rode in 37 seconds after Calmejane. French rider Guillaume Martin placed third on the stage, another 13 seconds back.

By being the first rider to scale the day’s last climb, Calmejane enjoyed the added bonus of picking up enough points to take the polka-dot jersey, awarded for points collected on climbs, off the shoulders of Italian Fabio Aru.

“Winning alone like that is incredible,” said Calmejane, who also won a stage at his first Grand Tour, the Spanish Vuelta, last year. “It’s everything I dreamed of.”

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